Hello Everyone,
My Dave's Garden Newsletter arrived this am and this Forum was listed. I didn't know it existed but am overjoyed that it does.
Up here in southern Maine we had an abundance of butterflies this year. The lavender colored native monarda punctuata was the biggest hit of the season followed closely by a buddleia that grew to enormous proportions.
One of the most popular native plants that is attractive to hummingbirds is the TOUCH-ME-NOT. It's an impatien with yellow/orange tubular shaped flowers and doesn't start blooming until mid to late August. The plant is called TOUCH-ME-NOT because when the ripe seed capsule is touched it explodes. The seeds go everywhere ensuring that numerous plants will bloom the following year.
I would like to have plants from spring through fall that will feed and host butterflies. Is there a thread that can tell me what plants I need to have? My property is approximately 3 acres and we're surrounded by a forest so having enough land isn't an issue. We're located in zone 5 so anything I plant must be cold hardy to our area.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Lisa
New to this Forum & Native Plants
Hello Lisa, here is a list of plants from USDA.ORG that are native to Maine, it is quite long, but from there you will be able to choose the ones that work for you;
http://plants.usda.gov/java/stateDownload?statefips=23
Also there will be many people on this forum that live close to your area and would love to help. Good luck with your endeavor.
Josephine.
Thank you Josephine! That's a huge list.
Lisa
Yes it is Lisa, but it should give you lots of choices.
Also if you want to know if a certain plant, say Gaillardia pulchella for an example is native to your state, you can go to usda.org and type the name in the search box, then click and it will show you whether is is native to the u.s. and if you scroll down the page you will see which states it is native to, this one is native to your state;
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=GAPU
That is a good way to go about it.
Oops, I goofed I thought your state was on that map. but you get the idea, right?
Josephine.
This message was edited Nov 26, 2007 7:54 PM
Welcome Lisa :o)
Hope to see you sharing your butterfly and hummie photos with us.
I'm in zone 9...where pretty much everything grows all year around...sorry can't help with what's hardy in your zone :o)
~ Cat
Welcome Lisa! We have postings from all over the world on this forum. This time of year there is not many of us showing our butterfly pics, but it will increase in a few months as things warm up. Right now our friends farther to the south are sharing.
Here is a link to the gardeners in your state. You can click on the headings to sort by location, etc. If you click the ID names, you can see the threads they have started, their journals, etc. and maybe get an idea what native plants others are having luck with in your area. http://davesgarden.com/community/memberlist/viewby.php?area=state&arg1=me&showonlysubbers=1&offset=0
Bourret--So happy you popped in to this forum! And what an exciting project you have ahead of you!
I am not sure what zone your town is in and you may want to add that information below your ID so that others will know and offer some good ideas for you...
The wild Impatiens (touch me not0 is a very popular hummingbird plant around here too and I planted loads of them along our woods two years ago. Some might consider them invasive, but they served me well and I had HBs late into the fall since the impatiens are one of the latest blooming HB nectar plants here...
Keep us posted! t.